News Brief

November 16, 1981

The rate of inflation for the month of October was nine percent, according to official figures issued Sunday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. It represented a blow to Treasury efforts to control inflation. But the Treasury stated: “We are doing what is possible to lower the rate of inflation.” The October figure brought the rate for the first 10 months of the year up to 81 percent. Some economic observers predicted that the annual rate for the calendar year would now top 100 percent. Finance Minister Yoram Aridor had hoped to bring the annual rate down to two digits this year.